The number of cattle slaughtered at Department of Agriculture approved plants has dropped for the second consecutive week.

Official figures from the Department of Agriculture’s beef kill database for the week ending November show that the weekly kill is down 10% on the week before.

However, it must be noted that some of last week’s fall can be attributed to the lack of processing last Monday due to the bank holiday.

Official figures show that all categories of cattle dropped last week, with the heifer group showing the least change on the week before, with a fall of 197 head or 2.6%.

Meanwhile, official figures also show that both young and aged bull slaughterings declined on the week ending October 30.

Last week’s young bull kill fell by 400 head or 13.6% on the week before, while aged bull throughput declined by 67 head or 13.9%.

There was also some reduction in steer slaughterings. Department figures show that last week’s steer kill declined by 1,576 head on the week before.

Official figures also show that cumulative cattle supplies continue to show a 5% increase year-on-year.

Young bull and cow throughput has posted the highest rise, with kill numbers up 29.1% and 9.3% respectively on the same time in 2015.

There were also slight increases in steers and heifers, but there has been a 14% drop in aged bulls, representing a slide of 4,190 head for the year-to-date on the corresponding period in 2015.